The invention proceeds from a forceps for dissecting free (i.e., excising) tissue in body cavities, in particular myomas sitting intramurally in the uterus, comprising a forceps jaw with two branches which are pivotable about a common axis in opposing directions in a working plane for opening and closing the forceps jaw and, with a closed, empty forceps jaw, bear against one another with structured gripping surfaces.
Such forceps comprise a forceps jaw with two branches which have smooth surfaces on their back sides and which are introduced into the region between the myoma and uterus wall with the forceps jaw closed, and are retracted in the spread condition, thus with an opened forceps jaw. In this manner, the tissue structures connecting the myoma to the uterus wall are severed. However, it has been shown here that already upon spreading the branches, and in particular with a pulling of the opened forceps jaw in the proximal direction, the grasped tissue slides off the back of the branches in an uncontrolled manner, and therefore is not separated. Furthermore, the branches in the known forceps are designed relatively short, so that only a small part of the tissue may be loaded, which limits the efficiency of the forceps.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a forceps with which the separating effect is considerably improved and which, as a whole, may be applied more efficiently.
Proceeding from a forceps of the above mentioned type, this object is achieved according to the invention in that the branches are each provided over a part of their length with a tooth-shaped back profile on their outer back sides lying opposite the gripping surface.
The advantages which may be achieved with this lie particularly in the fact that when the forceps jaw is introduced between the myoma and the uterus wall and subsequently opened, the tissue which is thereby loaded onto the backs of the branches is prevented by the back profile from slipping from the branches. The tissue may thus be put safely under the tension required for a separation and may be perfectly severed upon retraction the opened forceps jaw. The safety of the severing of the tissue is here even further increased in that a blade with an outwardly directed cutter is arranged longitudinally in the middle of each back profile. The blade preferably terminates with the back profile in a flush manner, i.e. lies in a plane with the neighboring apexes of the back profile.
According to a further preferred feature, the back profile may be designed with a saw-tooth shape, wherein the teeth may run transversely over the back of the branches and extend up to the region of the branch gripping surfaces. A design in which each tooth has a standing flank which connects to a retrograde running flank of the respective proximally following tooth has been shown to be particularly effective within the context of the object of the invention.